


Kings Of The Unknown

by CanDanAndPhilNot (enbycalhoun)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Best Friends, Gen, Imagination, Kid Dan Howell, Kid Fic, Kid Phil Lester, Phandom Reverse Bang, bridge to terabithia au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:01:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24876610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbycalhoun/pseuds/CanDanAndPhilNot
Summary: The new kid, Phil, is a bit odd, the fastest one in their class, and might be exactly what Dan needs.
Relationships: Dan Howell & Phil Lester
Comments: 10
Kudos: 15
Collections: Phandom Reverse Bang 2020





	Kings Of The Unknown

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This was written for the Phandom Reverse Bang 2020! This is paired with some art by kitchoasdoodle (I will link when I am able) and the beta for this is thefrownydimple! Go check both of them out over on Tumblr!

There wasn’t much to Dan’s life. There was nothing special about it. His family was normal enough. His Dad was a mechanic, bringing home enough to sustain them in their run down, two bedroom house that sat back on a dirt road. His mum stayed home and spent most of her days tending their large garden and kept their farm and family running. Adrien, Dan’s little brother was as annoying as any other primary school kid. Dan couldn’t say much though, he still had another year until secondary school. 

There was a lot that set Dan apart from the other kids at school. He’d been wearing the same, almost too tight clothes for years, and the kids at school always noticed. Despite their efforts to cut him down, Dan tried to keep his head up. The summer was coming to an end and he had spent the past few weeks training. He was going to win the race at recess when he went back, just to prove to them he wasn’t that sissy that sat in the corner with his drawings. 

  
  


What he did not anticipate was Phil Lester, the new kid in his class. Phil Lester didn’t look like other kids. But it wasn’t just his eccentric, bright clothes and mousey brown hair. His head was held high and the smirk on his face was enough to light up the room. At least Dan saw it. 

When Dan stepped up to the starting line at recess, he hand on his knee and breathing even, Phil stepped up beside him. 

"Hey, new kid, this race is for us. We've been here longer!" Samson, a pudgy kid known for picking on anyone smaller than him said. 

The smirk on Phil's face just shined brighter as he looked forward. 

Someone yelled go, and they started to run. 

*~*

"Hey pouf!" 

Something wet hit the back of Dan's head and dropped into his lap. He used to have some type of emotional reaction, now though all he did was take the piece of bread covered in jam and flicked it to the floor of the bus. Looked like he needed a shower that night to get the jam out of his hair. 

“Are you just going to let them talk to you like that?”

Dan turned his head to see Phil leaning forward on the back of Dan’s seat, his eyes too bright. “Well, what else am i going to do?”

“Well,” Phil started before quickly moving up into Dan’s seat, “you could fight back.”

“And get my butt kicked? I think not.” 

Maybe Dan was just bitter for being beat by the new kid. Maybe he was jealous of the way Phil walked around school acting like no one was staring at him or the same stupid kids that taunted Dan weren’t throwing insults at him now. 

The bus came to a stop at Dan’s driveway. Phil got up and let him out and Dan followed Adrien off the bus. When he heard another pair of feet hit the dirt behind him, Dan turned around. 

“What are you doing?” Dan asked as the bus doors closed and it pulled away.

“I live here.” Phil pointed to the house off to the left that was almost hidden by a cluster of trees, and ran off before Dan could reply

*~*

Dan didn’t mind that his family was poor. He could get past that. But every time he looked at his dad and saw the way he looked at Adrien with so much love, it made Dan’s stomach tighten. Part of him wondered if his birth was a mistake. It seemed like maybe he came too early in his parents lives. Adrien always got the goodnight kiss on the forehead and helped grow his flowers. Dan was always told to finish his chores and get his head out of the clouds. 

The drawings that covered the walls on his side of the room seemed to mock him. Part of him wanted to rip them down even though he truly was proud of these little pieces of art he’d created. 

*~*

“What’s that?”

Dan jerked. He flipped the cover of his sketchbook shut and turned around. Phil was leaning on the back of Dan’s bus seat, a slight smile on his face. 

“It’s nothing,” Dan mumbled, shuffling his notebooks so his drawing one was on the bottom. 

“Looked like a pretty cool drawing.”

“Well, no one asked you.” Dan hugged his books closer to his chest. 

Just like last week, Phil quickly moved up beside Dan. He snatches the drawing book before Dan can stop him.

“Hey! That’s private!” Dan reached over the boy but Phil had long arms, holding the book over his head. 

“Just let me look, please?” 

The sincerity in Phil’s voice made Dan’s anger soften. “Fine.” Dan went back to hugging his books and looked out the window. The sun was too bright and shined in, making Dan squint. 

“Holy, crap. This is so cool.” Phil whispered as Dan could hear the flipping of pages. 

“It’s just some silly drawings.” 

“This,” Phil said, holding the page of an in depth drawing of their art teacher in front of him. “This is really good Dan.” He didn’t wait for a response before flipping back a few pages to a few cartoon ideas Dan had last year. “This guy is my favorite so far. He looks like a Gerald.”

Dan laughed. “A Gerald.” 

“Yeah! The little wrinkles you drew beside his eyes? They scream, ‘I work in an office in the city and hate my job.’, don’t they?”

There was never any thought to what Dan drew, he’d have a picture in his head and he’d put it on paper. He never stopped to think that maybe these cartoons have names, lives, or maybe some sibling. “I guess... I guess they do.” 

“What about this lady?” Phil points to the old lady cartoon on the other side of the paper. 

“I dunno.” Dan shrugs. 

“Well, I think her name is Carol. She works in a library and always yells at kids who are too loud.” 

Dan could see it. The rest of the ride home, they made up stories for all his characters, Dan writing their names next to them so he wouldn’t forget. 

  
  


*~*

“Race you to the treeline?”

Running wasn’t something that Dan enjoyed much by himself. It was more to just prove a point that maybe he was good at something. But with Phil running beside him, the spring air whipping through Dan’s curls, he felt free, like they could run forever to somewhere they could get away from the world. No parents. No little brothers. No school. 

When they reached the treeline across the field, both boys were panting and red faced.

“Come on!” Phil beckoned for Dan and ran into the trees.

“Phil!” Dan called, but Phil kept on. “Phil!” This time Dan followed. Running through the trees felt different. There was no hot sun burning down on him, instead he had patches of sun changing from cool to warm with everyone he ran through. 

“Dan! Come look at this!” 

Finally Dan caught up, finding Phil on the bank of the creek that ran back behind both of their houses. 

“It’s a rope,” Phil said as he picked up a branch twice as long as himself. He hung it out over the edge of the bank and caught the dirty old rope, swinging it towards him. 

“What’re you doing? We can’t use that rope Phil. Look how old it is. I wouldn’t trust it.” 

Upclose the rope was slightly frayed, and dirty. 

Phil hummed and tugged on the rope. “Seems fine to me.” He dropped the branch and looked around. 

“Seriously, what are you doing?” Dan stood back and watched as Phil looked around and climbed up on an old fallen tree. 

“Getting higher.” Phil smiled down at Dan, wrapped his hands and leg around the rope and jumped. 

Dan’s heart fell into his gut. “Phil!”

With his legs stretched out in front of him, Phil swung forward, clearing the edge of the bank and back again twice. On his third swing back, Phil fell to the ground landing on his feet with a thud. 

“You have to try it.” He handed Dan the rope. “Tilt your head back and close your eyes. 

The rope was rough in his hands. 

“Go on,” Phil nudged him, his smile bright and contagious. 

Hesitantly, Dan climbed up on the stump and situated the rope between his legs. He took a deep breath and threw caution to the wind. Adrenaline pumped through his head and dropped into his stomach as he swung down towards the water and over to the other side of the bank. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes allowing himself to imagine he was soaring through the sky like a bird. 

When he heard his name being called out, he opened his eyes and dropped back down beside Phil, his feet feeling uneven on the ground beneath him. 

“That was awesome!” Dan said, not able to stop the laughter from bubbling up out of his throat. 

Phil took the rope back and climbed back up on the stump. This time, when Phil swung to the other side of the bank, the boy dropped off the rope and disappeared into the brush. 

“Phil!” 

Quickly, Dan followed, trying to ignore the fear of letting go of the rope too soon. The brush scratched the exposed skin of his arms, but he ignored it and climbed up and out to where Phil was standing. 

“We shouldn’t be over here.” Dan brushed himself off. 

“Do you hear that?” Suddenly serious, Phil stopped and cupped his ear. 

“Hear what?” Dan cupped his own ear. 

“We’re not alone...”

His stomach clenched. 

“It’s the fairies of the Unknown,” Phil whispered, his smile returning with a mischievous undertone. 

“The who?” 

“They’re calling for us!” Phil turned on his heel and started into the trees away from where they came. 

Not wanting to be left alone, Dan followed. 

“What do they want?” Dan asked, his breath slowing becoming heavy as he jumped over logs and dodged low hanging branches. 

“They want to know what took us so long!” Phil laughed. 

“Took us so long?”

They stopped dead in their tracks when they looked up to see an old tree house. Broken ladder, water-logged wood and moldy fabric curtains in the window stared back at them, but to Dan it looked like a kingdom. 

“Their kings. What took their kings so long to get here?” 

*~*

“So, what do we do?” 

Their patch job on the tree house wasn’t half bad. A few nails stuck out here and there, but at least now they had a ladder to climb up into their castle. Phil told him the guard gnomes would keep them safe anyway. 

“Well,” Phil mused, taking a bite of an apple as he sat with his back on the ground and his bottom and legs leaned up against the newly painted wall. “What we do is rule the kingdom. Of course.” 

“So…” Dan looked up from his sketchpad where he was trying to figure out what the guard gnomes actually looked like. “So like, we make laws and stuff? Should we introduce ourselves or something?”

“Nah. They know us already. Just look, some of the fairies are here now.”

“They are?” Dan looked up to where Phil was pointing. At first he saw nothing but dust particles dancing in the air, but then there was a flash of gold. Transparent wings and tiny bodies just big enough to fit in the palm of his hand. They were too fast to get a good look, but Dan knew they were there, just like the giants that he could hear walking around the fields miles away, and the rock people who would roll around, only stopping when they felt eyes on them. 

They had always been here, Dan was sure the only reason he’d never noticed before was because of Phil. Not only did Phil have what he called, “The Sight”, but Dan knew he could never imagine such an elegant creature and beautiful kingdom without a true friend by his side. 

Over the next two months, that’s what Phil became. They drew pictures together and sat next to each other on the bus, laughing at the stories from their reading class. But what Dan always looked forward to, was running to The Unknown after school. 

Their backpacks were ditched beside the tree between the split in their driveways and they would run, their legs moving at unearthly speeds, carrying them across the fields and through the woods to the rope where they could leave their normal lives behind, and become what they were always destined to be: kings of the Unknown. 

“What happens when we’re gone?” Dan asks, watching the fairies buzz around their heads.” 

“I don’t think we’ll ever leave.” The tone in his voice is definite. “We’ll be kings of the Unknown long after we’re gone. I think it’s a forever thing.” 

“That means i have to stay with you forever. Gross.” 

“Shut up,” Phil laughs and throws his apple core, nearly missing Dan’s head. 

*~*

He doesn’t tell Phil he’s going with his cousin to this museum. It was a last minute invite, and Dan wasn’t going to turn down hanging out with his rich aunt and uncle all day. But when he stepped inside his house after a long day of walking and his stomach bloated with copious amounts of fast food, he’d wished he could disappear. Mum and Dad are sitting on the couch, quiet enough to startle him. No Tv, no radio, and even Adrien is quiet, sitting on the floor mindlessly organizing a stack of pokemon cards. 

“Uh, hi?” Dan stumbles through the living room, dropping his pack beside the chair. 

“Dan, please sit.” 

“You guys are being weird…” Dan sits but his nerves are everywhere, like the electricity in the air during a thunderstorm. 

“Something...happened.” His mum said, staring down at her fingers intertwined with each other, gripping so tight her knuckles look white. 

“What happened?” His heart drops. 

There's a silence so fragile a breath too heavy could break it. 

“Your friend Phil. He’s- When you-” 

“He’s dead, Dan.” His dad finishes, his eyes on the floor. 

“That’s not possible,” Dan chuckles despite the knot in his stomach. This was a bad joke. Adrian talked them into playing a joke on Dan, that’s probably what was happening. 

“Dan, sweetie…” His mum stood and started towards him. 

“You’re lying!” Dan yelled, yanking his arm away from his mum’s touch.

“He tried swinging on a rope over the creek in the woods. It snapped and the water was too high.” His dad’s voice was softer than Dan had ever heard it when he was talking to him. It was the voice he’d hear him use with his little brother. 

“No, that rope is safe. We- no.” Dan ran to his room, willing the prickling behind his eyes to go away. It wasn’t possible, he kept telling himself. Phil wouldn’t leave The Unknown. Phil wouldn’t leave him. Those thoughts didn’t stop the tears from spilling over, and over, and over, until he fell asleep. 

*~*

Denial. That’s what his new therapist said a few days later. There was a process. Dan thought that was dumb. Everything was dumb. It was dumb that Dan hadn’t seen Phil for days. It was dumb that they kept up this..this joke. It wasn’t until they went to the funeral that Dan cried for the first time since the night his parents told him. 

He cried when he saw Phil’s parents and brother crying. Dan didn’t stay long. He threw his clip-on tie off and ran to the creek. When he looked up and saw the remnants of the rope, he started throwing rocks into the water with as much force as his small, spaghetti arms could muster. It wasn’t fair. Why did everyone else get more than one friend? Why did they get to keep their friends? It was like God hated Dan. He was being punished. If Dan could throw a rock at God he would. 

School was weird. Phil’s desk was empty and nothing seemed to matter. His teacher handed back their maths quiz and Dan couldn’t care less that he failed it. His mother made him shower even though he didn’t want to. Nothing mattered when he didn’t have Phil to share it with. Dan picked up his pencils and he drew Phil. Then he drew Phil again. And again. It was the only thing he could think of. He couldn’t think of fairies or giants, or the Unknown. It hurt too much to think of their world. 

A few weeks later, Dan was running a loop in his brain of something Phil had said. 

“ _ I don’t think we’ll ever leave. We’ll be kings of the Unknown long after we’re gone. I think it’s a forever thing _ .”

“Hey, Dad?” Dan asked, walking into the kitchen. 

“Hmm?” He looked up from his coffee, shifted in his chair, and laid the newspaper down on the table. 

“Can I um, use that wood that’s been sitting out back? And some tools?”

“Uh, sure.” His dad’s eyes went a little wide. “Building something?”

Dan didn’t answer him. 

It took Dan a few weeks, but eventually he’d gotten all the 2x4’s down to the creek and started building. It looked like total rubbish and Dan would be the first to admit it. With Phil there it would have looked better and Dan wouldn’t have smashed his thumb so many times with the hammer. 

Dan tested the stability of his bridge. It would do. Phil wouldn’t let him fall. 

Walking into The Unknown was strange at first. It was quiet; no one was around. 

“I’ve returned,” Dan whispered and closed his eyes. He felt them more than he’d heard them. After a deep breath, Dan opened his eyes. The fairies flew around, spreading a gold dust, the gnomes wiped their tears away and the giants were huddled together in the distance. 

Then, he couldn’t tell if it was real, until the creatures looked around like they heard it too. A whisper in the wind that sounded like Phil. And Dan knew with every fiber of his being that it _was_ Phil. He was here, in the sun shining down through the trees warming his face and the wind blowing his hair around. Phil was the creak coming from the castle and the rustle of the leaves, because he never really left. He wouldn’t let Dan rule their kingdom alone. Whether they were physically there or not, they would always be kings of The Unknown.


End file.
